Pt. 1. The man made of words. The arrow maker -- The native voice in American literature -- To save a great voice -- A first American views his land -- An American land ethic -- On Indian-white relations : a point of view -- The morality of Indian hating ; Afterword -- The centaur complex -- A divine blindness : the place of words in a state of grace -- The American West and the burden of belief -- pt. 2. Essays in place. Sacred places -- Revisiting sacred ground -- Navajo place names -- Sacred images -- Zagorsk : to the spiritual center of Russia -- On Bavarian byways -- Granada : a vision of the unforeseen -- New Mexico : passage into legend -- The homestead on Rainy Mountain Creek -- pt. 3. The storyteller and his art. When the stars fell -- The Indian dog -- The photograph -- An encounter in Greenland -- A turning point -- Quincy Tahoma -- Jay Silverheels -- One morning in Oklahoma -- I wonder what will happen to the land -- The toll road -- Graceful and at ease -- An element of piety -- Chopetl -- Teresita -- The head of a man -- The physicians of Trinidad -- The dark priest of Taos -- The octopus -- Dreaming in place

Exploring such themes as land, language, and identity, Momaday recalls the moving stories of his Kiowa grandfather and Kiowa ancestors, recollects a boyhood spent partly at Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, and ponders the circumstances of history and Indian-White relations as we inherit them today. Collecting thirty-two essays and articles, The Man Made of Words attempts to fashion a definition of American literature as we have not interpreted it before and explores a greater understanding of the relationship between humankind and the physical world we inhabit

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